A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to racks and supports and more particularly to a hand stamp rack.
B. Description of the Prior Art
The usefulness of hand stamps in the day to day operation of offices has resulted in a proliferation of such hand stamps and has produced an attendant need to display and store these hand stamps in an orderly and convenient manner. A variety of patents have been issued for such display and storage devices and personal observation of various offices and other work areas shows that some of the inventions patented are indeed in daily use in such work areas. The following paragraphs will discuss the primary two types of patented display and storage devices for hand stamps: wall mounted and surface mounted.
Some representative U.S. Pat. Nos. of the wall mount type include: 316,062; 422,056; 643,715; 807,757; 1,117,364; 3,388,622. While these wall mounted inventions have the advantage of displaying the stamps in such a manner that no work surface area is occupied, these wall mount types are not easily portable (if at all portable), nor are they quickly (if at all) convertible into desk mount types. Some require additional hand stamp identification tags (in addition to those already affixed to the hand stamps) since the labels already affixed to the stamps are not clearly visible when stored on the wall mount racks. It is also noted that the racks appear relatively heavy and that a large amount of rack surface area is generally required for each stamp stored, because of the manner in which the hand stamps are connected to the rack.
Some representative U.S. Pat. Nos. of the desk mount type include 475,120; 563,298; 624,919; 872,446; 954,793; 1,271,601; 1,562,369; and 3,590,734. While these inventions have the advantage of being more portable than the previously discussed wall mount racks, they offer greatly reduced maximum storage capacity, generally more complicated and expensive parts and assembly, generally greater rack weight per number of stamps held, and they are not quickly convertible into wall mount units. In several examples of this type, the inked printing surface comes into contact with a part of the rack, possibly contaminating the printing surface with dirt or with different colored ink from another stamp's having rested there previously.
Extensive personal observation has shown that among the previously issued patents of this type of invention, U.S. Pat. No. 152,369 of A. W. Schmidt and several adaptations thereof (particularly the stacking of individual clip members in a multi-tiered carousel fashion) seem to enjoy the widest use in offices, and so, this patented invention is worthy of special discussion. The metal construction of this popular "carousel" multi-tiered model makes it durable, but also relatively heavy. Although its actual base is not large, the lowermost tier of the carousel is quite large in radius and almost completely precludes use of the desk space underneath the lowermost tier. As patented, there is no provision for a mounting which will occupy zero desk space. Only 25% of the stamp labels are visible from a seated position with the carousel model, viewing 25% more labels requires a full 180.degree. rotation and the remaining 50% of the labels are only visible by rising from a seated position and turning additional rotations of up to 180.degree.. Finally, in its largest currently available capacity, the carousel can hold a maximum of only 40 handstamps in a vertical space of approximately 18 inches.
In short, an examination of the prior art reveals a collection of patented inventions which share one or more of the following limitations:
(1) Relatively great weight PA0 (2) Limited portability PA0 (3) No flexibility for mode change (ie, from desk mount to wall mount and vice versa) PA0 (4) Complicated and/or expensive components and/or assembly PA0 (5) Large surface area and/or weight per hand stamp held PA0 (6) Small maximum stamp holding capacity PA0 (7) Poor hand stamp label visibility